The present invention relates generally to the production of bent glass sheets and, more particularly, to an articulated press ring having pivotal end sections and which embodies novel means for rapidly adjusting the angular attitude of such pivotal end sections.
Bent sheets of glass are commonly used as glazing closures in vehicles such as automobiles and the like. For such applications, the glass sheets must be bent to precisely defined curvatures and/or sharp bends as dictated by the size and configuration of the glazing openings and the overall styling of the vehicle.
Among the many techniques developed to bend these glass sheets into these increasingly complex shapes, one successful attempt resided in the use of an articulated press ring having a main body section and a pair of pivotal end sections, such as that disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,996, granted on Feb. 21, 1978 and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. During the glass bending operation, each of the articulated end sections is swung relative to the main body section by a fluid cylinder. Depending on the configuration of the finished shape, it is often necessary to adjust the disposition of the articulated sections in their various operative positions, such as the fully open position, the fully closed position, or to adjust the angular attitude of one section relative to the other. In the first case, this is effected by adjusting the effective length of strokes of the piston rods of both cylinders equally which, from a practical standpoint, is difficult if not impossible to achieve. In the second case, any adjustment of the effective stroke length of one piston rod usually requires a compensating adjustment of the effective stroke length of the other piston rod. In either event, and assuming that both cylinders can be precisely adjusted to the same degree, the response time of the two cylinders in operation is not always synchronous so that one moves prior to the other to adversely affect the final shape of the finished bent product. Also, such adjustments are difficult to make because of the limited access into the press proper due to the many components and parts forming the press apparatus.